The Long Portage Part 19

"I can venture to promise that I won't be openly rude," Millicent agreed with a faint smile.

"Can't you go a little beyond that, my dear?"

The girl, seeing the look in her eyes, yielded to an impulse which prompted her to candor.

"What there is to be said had better be spoken now," she replied. "I have confessed that I knew what was expected--Clarence showed that he knew it, too--and the idea was not altogether repugnant to me. But since he came back from Canada there has been a change in both of us. How or why I can't explain, but we have drifted apart. I don't know whether this will go on--I don't understand myself--I only know that I am as anxious for his welfare as I always have been. It must be left to him; there is nothing you must urge me to do."

Mrs. Gladwyne looked regretful, but she made a sign of acquiescence and rising came toward the girl and took her hand.

"What I could do I have done--badly perhaps," she said. "I can't blame you. I am only sorry."

She went out in a few minutes and left Millicent in a thoughtful mood.

Looking back on the past, the girl recognized that she had been fond of Clarence--which was the best word for it--and that she would have married him had he urged it. He had, however, hardly been in a position to do so then, and she remembered that she had in no way regretted the fact. This was, she thought, significant. Then the change had gradually come about.

She saw his faults more clearly and it grew increasingly difficult to believe that she could eradicate them. What was more, during the past few weeks she had once or twice felt scornfully angry with him. She had tried not to yield to the sensation, and now she wondered how it had originated and why she was less tolerant.

As she considered the question, a shadow fell upon the sunlit lawn and looking up she saw Lisle approaching with a creel upon his back. She started at the sight of him and once more felt her cheeks grow hot; then she smiled, for the half-formed suspicion that had flashed into her mind was obviously absurd. He saw her the next moment and strode toward the open window.

"We got a few good white trout, fresh run," he said. "It occurred to me that you might like one or two of them."

He glanced at the long French window.

"May I come in this way?"

"I've no doubt you could do so, but out of deference to conventional prejudices it might be better if you went round by the usual entrance."

"Charmed!" he smiled. "That's easy."

"Would you rather have it hard?"

"That wasn't the idea," he answered. "I only felt that a much greater difficulty wouldn't stop my getting in."

Millicent laughed.

"If one of my neighbors made such speeches, they'd sound cheap. From you they're amusing."

He affected to consider this.

"I suppose the difference is that I mean them. Anyway, I'll walk around."

She gave him some tea when he came in, and afterward admired the fish.

"They're well above the average weight," she said.

"We had two or three that would beat them," Lisle declared. "Miss Crestwick came along and corralled the finest."

"Was the explanation essential?" Millicent inquired with a smile.

"That was a bad break of mine. So bad that I won't try to explain it away."

"I think you are wise," Millicent retorted with a trace of dryness.

On the face of it, she was pleased with his answer, but the fact he had mentioned caused her some irritation. Bella Crestwick, not content with monopolizing Clarence, must also seek to include the Canadian in her train. It was curious that for the moment that seemed the more serious offense. The girl was insatiable and going too far, Millicent thought.

Lisle noticed her silence.

"Remember that I'm from the wilds," he said.

She smiled at him rea.s.suringly.

"After all, that isn't a great drawback. Anyway, I'm grateful for the trout." Then, somewhat to his surprise, she abruptly changed the subject.

"I wonder what you think of a tacit promise?"

His face grew thoughtful; she liked his quick change to seriousness.

"Well, I don't know that my opinion's of much value, but you may have it.

Supposing two people allow each other to a.s.sume that they're agreed upon the same thing, it's binding upon both of them."

"But if only one actually made his wishes clear."

"In that case, the other had the option of showing that they couldn't be acceded to. Failing that, in my view, he can't go back on it." Then his eyes gleamed with amus.e.m.e.nt. "I don't often set up as a philosopher."

Millicent was a little vexed with herself for asking him and did not quite understand why she had done so, unless it was because she had not altogether recovered her usual collectedness after Mrs. Gladwyne's visit.

Why she should be interested in this man's opinion was not clear, but she thought he was one who would act in accordance with it. She was afterward even more astonished at her next remark, which she made impulsively.

"You have seen a good deal of Miss Crestwick, one way or another."

He considered this gravely.

"Yes," he replied. "I like her. For one thing, she's genuinely concerned about that brother of hers."

"What do you think of him?"

"Not much," Lisle answered candidly. "I've no use for a man who needs a woman to keep him straight and look after him. But one feels a strong respect for the woman, even though it's obvious that she's wasting her time."

"Is it wasting time?"

"It strikes me like that. A man of that sort is bound to come down badly some day."

Millicent sat silent a while. The conversation had taken an unusually serious turn, but she wondered whether he were right. She had, she thought, allowed Clarence to a.s.sume that she would not repulse him when he formally claimed her and that--so this man from the wilds considered--const.i.tuted a binding obligation. She could not contest this view; but Clarence seemed more interested in Bella Crestwick than he was in her. Then she wondered why the girl had made so much of Lisle, unless it was to use him for the purpose of drawing Clarence on. If that were so, it seemed a pity that the confiding Canadian could not be warned, though that, of course, was out of the question.

"I'm afraid I'm not very amusing to-day," she acknowledged.

He smiled.

"I'll go the moment you want to get rid of me; but, even if you don't say anything, I like sitting here. This place rests me."

"I shouldn't have imagined you to be of a very restful nature."